


it came from the sea

by Loverofchimkem



Category: Persona 5
Genre: M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, decription of injurys, im gonna add character tags as they appear because im not adding everyone at once, im not sure if it graphic description or not but its there, mentions of shark finning and genaral human dickishness, mermaid akira, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-05-08 15:40:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14697215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loverofchimkem/pseuds/Loverofchimkem
Summary: Ryuji was proud to consider himself an open-minded person, while he might not necessarily believe in things like ghosts or aliens he also wasn’t about to say that they didn’t exist, he was a firm believer of the age-old adage “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” Still, the blond couldn’t help but doubt his own eyes as he stared at what was undeniably a merman.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hello, and happy mermay! I hope you enjoy reading this and that you have a nice day/night!

Ryuji had decided to visit the beach that day on a whim, it was a Sunday so he didn’t have any school to occupy this time and the sky was deep blue and clear of clouds as far as the eye could see, the air temperature was a little on the warm side but there was a light breeze coming from the ocean to keep him cool.

 

He’d arrived at the beach just after the low tide had finished had ended so he had spent most of the morning walking up and down the shoreline, collecting any cool looking shells he saw and investigating any exposed tide pools he came across, he saw many of the usual occupants in said tide pools, crabs and slugs, sea urchins and starfish, and the various small fish that populated the rocky crevices. He also saw one very unusual addition to the tidal community.

 

The blond had found and quickly decided to explore an area near the water’s edge where the rocks curled protectively around a particularly large pool of water.

 

When he had first approached the pool, he had been surprised to see what had at first appeared to be a man with tanned skin and fluffy black hair curled up in the water with his back to the entrance effectively hiding any other features from view.  Ryuji had been so surprised to see someone in a location like this that it took him a moment before he noticed the man had several long gashes most of which still seemed to be bleeding to various extents.

 

When he finally did notice this fact, the blond rushed forward quickly pulling out his phone with the ambulance already dialed and his finger hovering over the call button, when he got close enough to the man to take in a few more very important details, the first and arguably most important of which was that he had a tail and fins in the place of legs and feet. The tail was long and covered in dual-toned black and red scales the tail fin itself was completely red. The next was that it didn’t react at all to the humans approach so the blond assumed that the mer was either asleep or unconscious.

 

Ryuji stared at the body in front of him failing to process what exactly he was seeing. It wasn’t until he heard a voice coming from his phone that he was startled back to reality. He quickly reassured the operator on the other end of the line that his call was for a false alarm, he came up with a story about how one of his friends had been suffocating but after he had called they’d managed to cough up the food they’d been chocking on, and that he actually didn’t need an ambulance. It took a few minutes but eventually, he was able to convince the operator of the tall tale but eventually they relented, and the blond was able to return to the creature in front of him.

 

‘holy shit,’ was all the ever-eloquent teenager could think as his brain came back online. taking advantage of his rediscovered mental facilities he quickly leaned down to get a better look at the mer. The first thing he did was check on the injuries to its back. He observed that there was a total of four gashes looking similar to the gashes one would see on manatees that get struck by boat motors. the first one placed over the shoulder blades and the last near the small of the back. Those two were relatively small and had mostly scabbed over at this point. The third one located about halfway between the first and the last one was about the same length and slightly deeper them it also wasn’t completely scabbed over yet but had all but stopped bleeding.

 

The one he was the most worried about was the second one down, it was both the longest of the for and the deepest, so it made sense that it was the one that was bleeding the heaviest and while heaviest was a relative term, in truth the wound was barley even producing a trickle of blood, Ryuji was still concerned about it and given that he had no idea how long the mer had been laying here nor how much blood it had already lost he didn’t want to take any more chances than necessary which meant that stopping the bleeding was his top priority.

 

Unfortunately, the blond hadn’t brought any first aid supplies with him, not having expected to run into anyone with a major injury during his trip to the beach. Thinking quickly Ryuji pulled off his shirt and used it as an improvised bandage wrap. Luckily for him, the mer was on the thin side so the bright yellow t-shirt easily managed to wrap around him. it also appeared that Ryuji's earlier assumption the mer was unconscious was the correct one as during the entire time he was being shifted around the only time he moved of his own accord was when he flinched away from the bandage making contact with his open wound.

 

With that problem temporarily solved, the teen was faced with a new one, what exactly to do with the injured mer in front of him. he briefly considered just walking away and leaving the mer to its fate, but tossed it aside almost instantly, the thought leaving a foul taste in his mouth. He considered his other options and diced that the best course of action would be to somehow get the mer back to his place and figuring things out from there. the only problem with that plan was that the blond had taken the bus to get to the beach and for some reason, he figured that carrying a merman onto a bus would not end well. So he pulled out his phone and texted the only person in his friend group who could actually help him.

 

 

> RS- Yo, Makoto your car has a big trunk, right?
> 
> MN-Yes, why?
> 
> RS-Hang on I’ll send a pic
> 
> RS-Fishman.img
> 
> RS-I found this guy and he’s injured, I need some way to get him to my house and you’re the only person I know with a car.
> 
> MN-And why are you taking him to your house and not say an aquarium?
> 
> RS-Because who knows what’ll happen to him if I do t theyll probbly just use him as some kind of cash grab.
> 
> RS- Or theyll give him to some science-y types and have them run all kinds of test on him.
> 
> RS-They might even just decide to cut him open and see what they can learn from that!
> 
> RS-Is that what you want makoto, is it?
> 
> MN-Alright, alright, I see your point, just give me your location and ill be there as soon as I can

 

Having received the confirmation that his friend was on her way Ryuji went to sit at the mouth of the rock formation and settled himself in for the wait.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! I'm back! I'm glad so many people are enjoying this story! I hope you enjoy this chapter and have a nice day/night!

Ryuji quickly found himself growing bored while waiting for Makoto to show up. He tried to distract himself with his phone, mostly switching between his various apps, one of his favorites was one where he played as a shark that ate everything in sight and looking up mermaid mythology partly for fun and partly in the hopes that at least some of the information would help him in the long term.

 

Occasionally other beachgoers would pass by, most of them paid him no attention, a few tried to start up a conversation, but they gave up easily enough when he let them know that he was waiting for a friend.

 

Ryuji was playing around with a different game, this one involved buying things and them burning them to earn enough money to buy more things, when noticed movement in his peripheral vision, when he looked up he was expecting to see another overly curious person wanting to know why someone was sitting alone in front of a cave opening only to be nearly blinded by Makoto’s white button-up shirt as it reflected the midday sunlight right into his eyes.

 

“Yo! Look who decided to show up!” he yelled out, using his arm to cover his eyes as he felt a grin spread across his face as he watched his friend's silhouette get closer and closer, until she eventually came to a stop in front of him, panting slightly. It was then that Ryuji noticed the large plastic tub that had been dragging behind her.

 

It took her another few moments to catch her breath before responding “I would have been here sooner if _someone_ hadn’t picked the single most remote location on the beach to discover an injured magical creature.” She said as she crossed her arms the slight exasperation and amusement tinging her voice offsetting any of the force that statement would otherwise have carried.

 

“Aw, come on, it’s not like I planned for this when I came here.” He said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck. “anyway, what’s with the tub?” he asked pointing to the bright blue plastic box sitting innocently behind Makoto. The tub was quite possibly one of the largest Ryuji had ever seen, more like a small bathtub than the storage box they tended to be. When he caught a glimpse of the inside he saw that it held several brightly coloured beach towels.

 

“I brought it because I thought it would be easier to move the merman around with it, we can also use the towels to hide him better,” Makoto explained, and her idea was certainly better than Ryuji’s plan of carrying the mer piggyback style to the car. “Also, knowing you I’m sure that your plan was something along the lines of keeping him in your bathtub. so, I figured that you could use the tub instead.” And once again Makoto goes above and beyond the call of duty.

 

“Um, yeah, keeping him in the bath is kind of exactly what I was going to do,” Ryuji admitted as he looked away from his friend, he still heard the small laugh that his admission had provoked.

 

“Hey, you can shut it, I’m sure I would have come up with a better idea on my own. Anyway, are we just going to stand out here and spend all day laughing at me or are we going to get to work?” he said feigning annoyance as he patiently waited for her to finish with her fit.

 

“sorry, sorry,” Makoto apologized desperately trying to stifle her laughter, “it’s just so like you that is funny, but you are right, let’s go.”

 

Ryuji kept an eye on Makoto’s face as they walked side by side to where the mer continued to lay curled up and still unconscious, watching it flicker rapidly between disbelief and amazement. Ryuji thought that he probably didn’t look much better, even though he was the one to have found the mer and as such was the one who’d had more time to adjust to the idea of fish people being more than just a fairy tale, the sight of the black and red tail connecting to the body of a teenager was something he was still struggling to digest.

 

It wasn’t long before Makoto shook her head to clear it and got down to work.

 

Ryuji watched as she dug under the towels for a few moments before standing up triumphantly and pushing a plastic bucket into his hands and instructing him to use it to fill the tub with water.

 

As Ryuji waited for Makoto to finish emptying the tub of the towels it currently held he weighed the pros and cons of filling the bucket itself with sea water, knowing that it would take several trips and with the tide at nearing its lowest point it would be a bit of a walk to reach the water. The other option was to use the shovel that came with the bucket to move the water from the pool that was in the cave to the tub, it would be slower, but he wouldn’t have to move nearly as much and as an added bonus he could keep an eye on Makoto and the mer as he worked.

 

Making his decision Ryuji knelt next to the tub and wrestled with the buckets handle to get it to give up its hold on the shovel.

 

Despite that fact that whoever designed the beach toy clearly hadn’t intended for anyone to actually use it Ryuji eventually managed to separate the shovel from the bucket. When he turned around to show off his accomplishment he was met with the sight of his friend placing the towels on a flat rock on the other side of the cave before returning to pull out the last remaining item in the tub which just happened to be a roll of gauze and a bottle of water.

 

Seeing that the tub was now empty Ryuji set to work refilling it. he quickly discovered that the shovel was about as inefficient as he’d expected and decided to distract himself from the monotonous task by watching Makoto as she worked.

 

At first, she just stood in front of the mer, possibly not entirely convinced that it wasn’t some kind of hallucination and that it wouldn’t disappear as soon as she touched him, it didn’t take her long to overcome her hesitation and begin dealing with the wounds on the mer’s back; a task that was made all the easier for her because most of them had already closed up to some extent.

 

She started by removing Ryuji’s makeshift bandaging and maneuvering the mer do that he lay flat on his stomach making it all the easier for her to make sure that the wounds were free of shrapnel. Ryuji couldn’t help but feel sorry for the mer whenever he saw it flinch away from Makoto as she worked.

 

Eventually, she pulled away, satisfied with the fact that she had failed to find anything and grabbed for the water bottle that was set beside her. She used the water to clean out as much of the sand that had gathered around the wounds as she could before covering up the gashes with the bandages she had brought.

 

after double checking her handy work and when she decided it was good enough she turned to check on Ryuji’s progress and seeing he had only managed to fill around a quarter of the tub, decided to grab the previously discarded bucket to help him out.

 

Working together it was only a matter of time until the tub was full.  At which point the only thing to do was move the mer into the tub. They worked together to move the mer with Makoto lifting the front half and Ryuji dealing with the tail. The two teens were surprised at how heavy the mer turned had turned out to be, neither of them expecting him to weigh much more than the teenager his human half revealed him to be which left their first attempt at moving him a failure. They quickly readjusted though and managed to successfully move the mer with their second try.

 

With the mer in the tub, Makoto quickly moved to cover the top of the container with a few of the beach towels and throwing the rest of them to Ryuji who tossed them over his shoulder while she herself picked up the beach bucket and shovel. They both grabbed one end of the tub and began the long walk all the way towards Makoto’s awaiting car.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you have any questions comments or concerns please feel free to let me know!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! I'm back with another chapter I hope yall enjoy and have a nice day/night!

It took the two a couple of hours to find their way back to the more populated part of the beach. The increase in beachgoers only served to introduce new challenges as they got closer to the parking lot.

 

“Ugh, it looks like half of Tokyo came out today,” Ryuji said as he and Makoto approached the large throng of people who had gathered near the water, attempting to escape the midday heat.

 

Knowing that they had no other option if they wanted to get home anytime soon, the two wasted little time and plunged head first into the crowd.

 

As they carefully navigated around people’s belongings, the occasional kind Samaritan offered to help, seeing them struggling to drag the heavy tub across the sand. Most were relatively easily waved away, but some were a bit more insistent. In spite of that, the two made relatively quick progress.

 

Eventually, the duo found themselves at the beach’s parking lot and subsequently Makoto's car. It was an old SUV with chipping brown paint and more miles than was probably good for it, but it had only cost a couple hundred thousand yen, and as such was the best thing she’d been able to afford on a student’s budget.

 

Working together, they lifted the tub into the back of the car before climbing into the front. As was usual for the old car, it took a few tries for it to settle into the low steady rumble that signified that it had started.

 

Letting out a sigh of relief, Makoto pulled out of the parking lot and began the drive back to Ryuji’s home. It seemed that Lady Luck was on their side that day, as they encountered next to no traffic. Ryuji was somewhat surprised when Makoto didn’t take the opportunity to drive as close to the speed limit as she could.

 

Ryuji had at first been surprised by his friend’s driving habits, but he, like the rest of their group, had quickly learned that whenever Makoto was at the wheel the best option was to brace himself as best he could and hoped that there wouldn’t be too many turns on the way. He figured that the uncharacteristic slowness was because she didn’t want to tempt fate and risk the mer being forcibly launched out of the tub. Even at the relatively slow speed they were going, he could clearly hear the sound of sloshing water behind them.

 

Thankfully, the drive wasn’t long, 45 minutes at most. That didn’t stop Ryuji from relaxing when his house finally came into view.

 

The house was on the smaller side, but considering it was occupied by just his mom and him it was more than enough. The slightly chipping paint had at one point been a bright and inviting yellow, but the years had worn it down to a softer cream. The front yard was filled with various flowering plants, their bright blooms helping to make up for the faded facade.

 

Ryuji couldn’t help but notice the absence of his mother’s silver sedan. It was a clear indicator that she was still at work, a fact that he was more than grateful for. He knew he couldn’t keep the mer hidden forever, but he would still gladly put that specific conversation off for as long as possible.

 

When Makoto had finished backing into the driveway, they both got out of the car. Ryuji quickly unlocked and opened the front door before returning to help Makoto with the tub.

 

Struggling slightly with the heavy load, the two of them were able to maneuver the tub into Ryuji’s room. The problems started when he opened his door and remembered that it had been a good while since he had last sat down and seriously cleaned his room, usually content to just toss out empty wrappers and call it a day. From his spot at the door, he could tell that finding a spot large enough for the tub that wasn’t already occupied by some half-read manga, clothing piles of varying cleanliness, or a nearly uncountable number of half-empty bottles would be a lesson in futility.

 

He cringed at the slightly disgusted sound Makoto let out, despite her best attempt to hide it. as she looked over his shoulder at the mess. He could only imagine what the room must look like to her; he was almost certain that she was physically incapable of messiness.

 

“Ryuji,” he heard her sigh behind him, clearly unhappy with his self-imposed living conditions. He refused to look back at her, already picturing the patented mom-friend frown he’d be faced with.

 

Mindful of the mer, still out cold in the tub, Ryuji made sure to set the container down as gently as he could before going to look for some trash bags to clean his room up. He eventually found some hidden just out of sight in the back of the kitchen pantry.

 

Walking back to his room, trash bags in hand, Ryuji was unsurprised to find that Makoto had begun cleaning. She was in the process of placing his half-read manga and comic books back onto their proper places on his bookshelf.

 

Deciding to leave her to her work, Ryuji set about his task of gathering all the empty bottles and random paper plates that were littered about his floor, shoving them into the trash bag so he could throw them out later.

 

After they’d both completed their respective tasks, they came back together to get Ryuji’s clothes sorted out. Ryuji began sorting them into a more or less clean and a dirty pile, the latter of which got shoved into yet another trash bag, this one washing machine bound, Meanwhile, Makoto took care of folding and putting away the first pile.

 

Working as a team, they finished in record time and the end result was a far cleaner room than Ryuji had seen in months.

 

Satisfied with the state of the room, Makoto and Ryuji resumed their original task and finished moving the tub into the room. They had to move Ryuji’s desk a bit to the side to make room for it, but after a few minutes the mer was sleeping nice and snug under the only window in the room in the farthest corner opposite the door. It was only a few moments after the two had finished moving the mer that Makoto's phone went off, the high-pitched tone alerting the two occupants of the room that she had received a new text.

 

Quickly reading over the message, she explained that Eiko had texted her saying that she needed help with something. After Ryuji assured her that he could take it from here, she headed out, leaving him alone with only his thoughts and a still unconscious fish-man.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello, I'm back, I hope you enjoy this new chapter and have a good day/night!

With Makoto now gone and the house empty save for himself, Ryuji was left with the dawning realization that, contrary to what he had just told Makoto, he was in fact very much unprepared to deal with an injured merman. It wasn’t like there was anyone he could ask for help, knowing that if word got out about a real live mermaid being discovered it would only be a matter of time before scientists began trying to steal him away to run all kinds of experiments on him, and that was the last thing Ryuji wanted for the creature.

 

He figured his best course of action would be to at least try and gain some insight into what he was dealing with. 

 

He paid little mind to the distressing sounds his old desk chair made as he sat down and switched on his computer. The chair was old and missing both its elbow rests as well as the mesh backing, but it had somehow managed to hold together for years now and Ryuji knew that despite its complaining he could still squeeze some use out of it before he’d need to seriously consider getting it replaced.

 

As he waited for his very old and incredibly slow computer to finish booting up, Ryuji took the time to glance down at the mer still curled onto his side in the tub, finally getting a good look at him.

 

As expected, the most eye-catching part of the mer was his tail, long and tapering down until it was taller than it was wide. It was covered in scales that started black near the base and switched to a ruby red color to line the outside edges, creating a beautiful overlapping pattern while the tail fin itself was one solid, slightly darker shade of red.  Both the dorsal and anal fins ran perpendicular to the tail fin on the top and bottom of the mer’s body respectively, with the dorsal fin stopping about a fourth of the way up and the anal fin almost double that length.

 

Forcefully ignoring his sudden desire to reach out and touch the tail, he ripped his gaze away from it and instead found himself staring at the mer’s human half.

 

The first thing he noticed was that the mer’s chest and stomach were several shades lighter than his back, with the former so pale as to be nearly white while the latter was more of a golden tan.

 

Eyes wandering a bit, he noticed that the mer’s arms were covered in a thin layer of scales, starting with only a few stray scales growing just beneath his shoulder and growing denser down his arm until there was almost no skin left visible just below his elbow, then tapering off at the wrist. He was surprised to see that these scales didn’t match the ones on the mer’s tail, being solid black as opposed to dual-tone. The arm scales were also much smaller than the ones on the tail.

 

Glancing from the wrist to the mer’s hands, Ryuji saw that he was sporting a set of ten needle-sharp claws, and silently prayed that he wouldn’t find himself on the receiving end of any hand-based attacks any time soon.

 

Resuming his examination, Ryuji found himself staring at the mer’s long, elegant neck and took a long moment to admire the delicate gills that flashed in and out of sight with the mer’s every breath.

 

Finally, Ryuji arrived at his final destination, and he felt his breath catch in his throat as he took in the mer’s face. He was certain that it should be illegal for a face that pretty to exist. The mer had inky black hair that was just long enough to frame his face. Where his eyebrows should have been were more small black scales. His eyelashes were long and just as dark as his hair, Ryuji couldn't help but find himself slightly disappointed that he couldn’t look into the mer’s eyes, while delicate pink lips completed the portrait.

 

Ryuji found himself completely enthralled by the otherworldly beauty of the creature in front of him, and probably could have spent the rest of the day staring had it not been for the sound of his computer coming to life.

 

Reluctantly, Ryuji turned away from the sleeping mer and back to his computer.

 

He logged in and immediately began looking for whatever information he could find on mermaids. He was unsurprised to find that, just as for any other legend, the details depended almost entirely on the author with different pages sometimes outright contradicting each other. For example, one source said that mermaids were harbingers of disasters such as floods, while another said that they were prone to bestowing boons onto those lucky enough to come across them.

 

After a few more minutes of searching the web, he decided that trying to read through every fairytale and legend to pick out the few similarities between them would take far too long for what would likely end up being far too little reward.

 

Changing tracks, Ryuji looked up how to care for predatory fish. While he had yet to see the mer’s teeth, with claws that sharp at its disposal the chances of him being anything less than a predator were slim. Come to think of it, did he even have anything for the mer to eat when he, hopefully, came to?

 

Not wanting to risk being alone with a confused and hungry creature, Ryuji got up and went to check the kitchen. When he opened the fridge, he saw exactly what he had expected; a bit of leftover salmon fillet and not much else in the way of seafood.  He could try feeding him some of the pork hiding away in the back, as Ryuji was fairly certain that meat was meat and the source wouldn’t matter much, but at the same time he didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks, especially with the mer already being as injured as he was, The last thing Ryuji wanted to do was make things worse.

 

Having made up his mind, Ryuji briefly returned to his room to grab a bit of money from his savings. He’d been hoping to use it to buy a new computer at some point in the future, but he figured that this was a more important expense.

 

He walked down to the nearest supermarket, which thankfully wasn’t too far away, but while standing in the seafood department a new problem revealed itself. Should he go for quantity over quality or vice versa? Would the mer even care?  He spent several long minutes agonizing over this before realizing that he was most certainly overthinking things and simply decided to get a mix of everything the store had to offer.

 

He paid little mind to the curious if slightly confused looks the other shoppers were giving him as he filled his buggy with everything from salmon to bass to tuna. When he was done he considered grabbing a few goldfish from the pet section in case the mer preferred live food, but quickly struck that though down, not particularly wanting to watch the poor fish get eaten alive if he didn't have to.

 

Arriving back home, Ryuji made a beeline for the kitchen and quickly stuffed the newly purchased fish into the fridge, then rushed back to his room only to stop dead when he saw a pair of dark grey eyes staring right at him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if anyone Is curious I based Akira's design off of an Asian red Arowana, I also gave him countershading on his human half because why not. ~~also, thank you lody for making this mess readable ilu.~~


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another chapter finally out! I hope you enjoy reading it and have a nice day/night!

When Akira awoke, he was surprised to see a wall of red in front of him, as he distinctly remembered passing out in a secluded cave near the shore. His first thought was that he had succumbed to his injuries and that the red overtaking his vision was his introduction to some kind of an afterlife; however, the fact that he was still breathing and the twinges of pain coming from his back both assured him that he was still among the living.

 

With his rediscovered mortality in mind, Akira knew that despite the soreness in his muscles, he needed to at least try and figure out where he was.

 

Ignoring the sting of the cuts on his back as he shifted around, and the ache in his tail as it protested being moved after so much time spent in one position, Akira flipped himself onto his stomach and lifted his body above the water line.

 

He took a moment to let his body adjust to breathing air, a process that involved waiting for all the water in his lungs to drain via his gills before they sealed themselves shut, which caused him to feel like he was suffocating for a second or two before his trachea opened up and allowed him to breathe again. The process was quick but unpleasant, and he couldn’t help but feel relieved after it was over.

 

As he looked around, Akira realized that he would probably have been better off had he died on the beach.

 

He only recognized a few things in the room. The towels on the floor next to him looked like those Akira knew humans liked to bring with them to the beach, and that was more than enough to remind him of every terrible thing he knew humans were responsible for.

 

Akira had spent the past few years as a lone mer after being kicked out of his old pod. 

 

One of the elders had decided to accuse a fingerling of disrespect, and he had been the unfortunate target. It was one of the worst offences one could commit; pod elders were vital for the health and well being of the rest of the pod. They were often the only ones who had the fish migration patterns memorized, or who had close enough ties to the other pods to allow everyone safe passage through their territories, so disrespecting any of them was considered equal to disrespecting everyone and was treated as such.

 

As an outcast, Akira was always on the move. He wandered from one pod's territory to another, avoiding being spotted while also making sure he found enough food to keep himself going. As he travelled far and wide, it wasn't uncommon for Akira to stumble across the destruction that followed humans as if they were some kind of malignant disease infecting the seas.

 

That destruction oftentimes took the form of ravaged reefs. Some were demolished by the large heavy nets that humans seemed to enjoy racking across the seafloor. What reefs weren't entirely wrecked that way were almost always left as ghost towns, the corals bleached white from stress, rendering them uninhabitable to the fish who used to call them home.

 

Another thing that humans were to blame for were the giant patches of plastic and other waste cluttering the water near Japan. Akira always did his best to avoid that area. Not only did the amount of food available to him decrease the closer he got to them, but the chances of getting sick from the poor water quality was high. Despite the risks, his curiosity had gotten the better of him once or twice and he had checked out the garbage patch. He’d been lucky not to get sick, but it had still taken forever to clean his scales of all the dirt and grime that gathered beneath these islands of trash.

 

While both of those acts were horrible, as long as he made sure to avoid the areas that were most affected it was easy enough to forget about them entirely. However, he was much more strongly impacted by humans capturing sharks to chop off all their fins before tossing them back into the ocean to die as it was something he saw fairly often.

 

No matter how many times he saw it — and he saw it often as stealing from fishing boats was an easy if dangerous method of getting food for a lone mer — the sight still managed to make him feel sick to his stomach. He didn’t understand how anyone could be so cruel as to leave another to suffer until it either suffocated or was eaten. Knowing this, Akira felt no remorse for finishing off what the humans had started, as much as he wished he didn't have to.

 

Akira had been happy to note as the years went on that that particular practice seemed to have become less common, but the memories were still seared into his brain.

 

The sound of something slamming a short distance away broke him away from his unpleasant thoughts.

 

Akira felt ice cold fear spread through his body as the sound of footsteps drew closer, and he barely even noticed when his claws ripped through the plastic of the tub. He desperately wished he could dive back under the water and go back to when he was still a fingerling, when the age-old logic of “if I can't see you then you can’t see me” could still help him.

 

He was unsure whether to consider himself lucky or not that it only took a few minutes of tense waiting before the door in front of him swung open. It revealed a tall blond, wearing a shirt that was as red as Akira’s tail, and covered in letters that Akira couldn't understand.

 

As the human's dark brown eyes met his grey ones, Akira felt his fins flare out against the plastic bottom of the tub to make him look bigger, despite the fact that there was no chance the human would see the display through the walls of the tub.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> once again lots of thanks to my editor lod, yall should go read all of her pegoryu week fics because they are all top quality!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the wait, this chapter really decided it did not want to work with me, but even with that, I hope everyone enjoys it and has a good day/night!

Ryuji stood in his doorway, brain struggling to catch up to the fact that the mer was awake. The still-drying hair plastered to his cheeks told Ryuji that he hadn't been up for very long. He was too distracted by the mer’s wide grey eyes to pay much attention to that fact, though. It wasn't until the mer hissed loudly at him, after he took a few steps closer in an attempt to get a better view of them, that he snapped out of whatever trace he had entered and was able to properly take stock of the situation.

 

He watched as the fins lining the mer’s ears flared out and flushed an even deeper red than they normally were, wide grey eyes frantically looking everywhere but at Ryuji, and sharp claws all but ripping through the plastic of the tub.

 

Ryuji knew that he was a far cry from a genius, but even he could tell that this wasn’t a creature he wanted to make any sudden movements around. So he relaxed his posture as best he could and held his hands out with the palms up, trying to emit as non-threatening of an aura as he could.

 

He made sure to move slowly, but even so he still saw the mer flinch slightly with every step he took. As he got closer, Ryuji noticed that the mer was shaking ever so slightly and that his breathing was far too quick and shallow to be normal — as much as Ryuji could judge of what normal looked like on a mer.  Ryuji was worried that he mer would start hyperventilating on him.

 

Thanks to Futaba, he already had a bit of experience dealing with panic attacks and the symptoms that came with them, but for some reason, his gut told him his offers to help wouldn't be well received.

 

Luckily, his bed wasn't too far from the door, which meant that he got to stay well out of lunging range if the mer decided to go on the offensive.

 

As he sat on his bed, he realized he had no idea what to do now. He’d been so busy getting the guy home and preparing for when he woke up that he hadn't considered how to move forward once he did. He either had a very dangerous and very scared creature in his room, or, if the legends were to be believed, an animal that was sapient instead of simply sentient. Neither of those options really reassured him.

 

Ryuji hoped it was the latter; his only experience with taking care of animals was when he had catsat for Futaba, and he was pretty sure that wasn’t really applicable here. He couldn't imagine that taking care of a pampered house cat was anything like trying to take care of a wild animal.  If the mer was sapient at least that meant he could be reasoned with, eventually, and that would  almost definitely make everything go smoother in the end.

 

He conveniently ignored the fact that human-level intelligence meant a human-like ability to come up with revenge plans if he pissed the mer off enough.

 

For now, he decided that it would be best to just let the mer work out whatever he was thinking or feeling on his own before Ryuji could even try to begin figuring out anything about him.

 

He decided that distracting himself by reading a few of his favorite mangas was his best course of action. He made sure to keep the mer in his peripheral vision, constantly checking for any change in his behavior. Already, he could see that there was less pure terror on the mer’s face; whether that was because he’d made no attempts to get closer in several minutes, or because he was no longer directly watching him, Ryuji couldn't tell, but he also wasn't about to start complaining.

 

It took awhile, but eventually whatever adrenaline had entered the mer’s system when Ryuji had first appeared vanished, leaving him slumped over and clearly exhausted.

 

The mer straightened himself out and focused his attention on Ryuji once more as soon as he realized that he was being watched again, his head cocked to the side with both confusion and curiosity starting to creep into eyes where there had previously been only fear.

 

Ryuji, who’d been trying hard not to set the guy off again, started to worry that he had when he saw the mer startle, but his fins stayed right where they were and if anything he only looked more confused.

 

Curiosity seeming to get the better of him, the mer called out with a few fast, high pitched clicks, reminiscent of the sounds dolphins made. When Ryuji didn’t reply, an annoyed frown overtook his fine features.

 

Silence filled the room for the next few seconds, the mer seeming to think hard about something as  his brow started furrowing.

 

At last he spoke, slowly, his voice trembling slightly.

 

“Who are you? Where are we? What do you want?”

 

The words themselves were stilted and disjointed, and the pronunciation more than a bit off, but understandable all the same.

 

Ryuji briefly got distracted as he wondered where the mer had learned Japanese, whether it was some magical innate knowledge or if the mer had somehow managed to learn the language by watching humans,  which was, in Ryuji's opinion, a good deal more impressive.

 

He noticed that the mer’s ear fins were beginning to flick back and forth along with his claws once again flexing against the plastic, and realized that he should probably answer the mer’s questions sooner rather than later.

 

“Well, my name’s Ryuji,” he started off as he gestured to himself and immediately wanted to smack himself, because who else could he mean — the plant sitting on the window sill?

The mer spent a few minutes repeating the words several times before nodding to himself, satisfied with the fact that he was saying them correctly.

 

“My name is Akira,” he parroted back to Ryuji, hand movements and all. Finally, he could stop referring to Akira as just “the mer” now that he had a name for him.

 

He was about to start answering Akira’s other questions when a loud growling sound interrupted him. He chuckled when he realised that the sound had come from Akira, or more specifically Akira’s stomach. It really shouldn't have surprised him as much as it did, considering he had a good idea of how long Akira had been without food.

 

“We should probably get some food into you before we start talking, huh?” Without waiting for any sort of response aside from the thoroughly confused expression that had once again settled onto Akira's face, he turned on his heels and hurried out of the room.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanna give you all fair warning I was peer pressured into joining the p5 big bang (yall can thank musicaldefiance for that by reading all her wonderful words) so all of my everything will be going on hiatus until that is over.
> 
> and if anyone is interested in joining us for the big bang, feel free to ask! there's both a Tumblr with the rules and all that and a discord you can join with the rest of us!

**Author's Note:**

> just to note its possible that the title may change idk yet. also, feedback is encouraged! if you liked or didn't like something id appreciate you letting me know!


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